I EXPECT most of us have been
asked at some time or another to collect postage stamps for the horeign Missions. It has always been a mystery to me how sacks and sacks of common British stamps cart be made to realise cash, except as pulp—and this seems a rather onerous way of doing that. But a leaflet called
"This Stamp Business" issued by the students of St. Stanislaus College, Tullamore, gives some interesting details. They sell English. and Irish stamps by weight. 100Ibs. at a time, to wholesale importers in America and the Continent. Ultimately. I suppose, your little boy, starting a stamp collection. will buy some of them back in a half-a-crown 'Special Selection.' Believe it or not, the demand for the stamps greatly exceeds the supply. Tullamore already sells a I ton of Irish stamps a year. and they could sell three tons. Meanwhile. the profit does go to the Missions. and I should have thought it was on the whole more fun to set the kiddies running roundthe parish for 'Stamps for the Missions' than letting them waste their pocket money on 'Special Selections.' No one will be angry if they keep back a few of the choicer specimens. By the way, the stamps should he torn off with about halfan-inch margin,